


Mead: #26

by Ignisentis



Series: 32 Ways To Say I Love You [26]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Asgardian Mead, Drunk Character, Idiots in Love, M/M, Sam Wilson POV, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, adorable bickering, alcohol use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22625116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignisentis/pseuds/Ignisentis
Summary: When Thor comes back from Asgard, the team has a welcome back party for him. Bucky indulges a little too much in the special Asgardian Mead Thor brings with him, to everyone else's delight.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: 32 Ways To Say I Love You [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602352
Comments: 45
Kudos: 220





	Mead: #26

**Author's Note:**

> We are into the home stretch, my lovelies! Less than one week to go before the final ficlet, which will post on Valentine's Day (aka February 14.)
> 
> Bucky does get drunk in this fic, if that's a concern for anyone. Not too drunk, but he's feeling light and happy, and he's definitely not sober.

Some days, when Sam Wilson stops to think about the trajectory of his life, he realizes it took a hard left the day Steve Rogers trolled him during a run. And yeah, there had been some fucking terrifying days, and he’d come close to dying a few times, but on balance? On the whole? He wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

The hardest part, he thinks, is being the most well-adjusted member of the main team, and that’s saying something, all things considered. It helps to be able to call Rhodey or Pepper and do a “what the fuck, how are any of these people even semi-functioning” sometimes, and he’s getting a lot better about setting boundaries for his own mental health, and he’s pretty sure everyone is in some form of therapy or other now, which is good. He texts his mom a lot more than he used to, and his sisters, too. He’s pretty sure his mom texts Steve, and maybe even Bucky, ever since he had both of them come over for a family dinner, but they deserve to have that as their own thing, so he doesn’t ask. 

The fact that almost no one on the team has any sort of family means they’ve created their own, through fits and starts, but it happened all the same. It was inevitable, Sam supposes, once everyone moved into the Tower, but he’s never more grateful for it than on days like this.

Thor had to go back to Asgard for a little while, but he’d gotten back last night, so Tony had declared today would be a group dinner/welcome home party for Thor. They haven’t had a good group party in a while, and they’re always so much fun, so Sam’s excited. 

This time, though, Thor brought back some sort of Asgardian mead that would apparently straight-up kill any mortal who tried it. Which means the only people who could feasibly drink it were The Hulk — and there was no way anyone wanted a drunk Hulk so Bruce passed — Steve, and Bucky. Bucky, whose Hydra-modified serum meant alcohol didn’t work on him, just like it didn’t work on Steve.

Bucky, who had been getting more and more comfortable with everyone as the months had passed, who had started opening up more, talking more, becoming more of the person he so clearly wanted to be instead of the machine Hydra made him.

Bucky, who clearly drunk enough mead tonight to get shitfaced, to Sam’s growing delight.

Dinner was long over, and everyone was gathered on Tony’s sectional couches, talking and laughing, sharing stories, drinking delicious drinks, eating salty snacks. Steve and Bucky had started out sitting next to each other, but as the evening went on and Bucky had more mead, he ended up draped sideways across Steve’s lap, Steve’s arms wrapped around his waist to keep him balanced and hold him close.

It’s probably the most open they’d been around the whole group, not that they were trying to hide anything before. There were always the loving glances between them, little touches, quick kisses. But this? Bucky snuggled up in Steve’s lap, Steve’s face flushed from magic mead and Bucky’s proximity, just laughing and being happy together, comfortable enough to do this in front of the group?

Fuck, it’s so goddamn adorable. It makes Sam happy, really, truly happy. And judging by the looks on some other faces around the room, Natasha in particular, he wasn’t the only one who thinks so.

Pepper says something to Bucky, and he starts giggling — honest to god giggling, what the fuck? How drunk  _ is _ he?! That giggle makes Steve smile and poke Bucky in the ribs, which makes Bucky squawk, which is probably the whole reason Steve did it in the first place, judging by the shit-eating grin on his face.

Goddamn, Sam’s going to need to see a dentist if they keep this up, it was so sweet.

“Steve!” Bucky says, a little breathless. “Steeeve. Sssssssssssttttteeeeeeeeeeevvvvveeeeee!”

“Yeah, Buck?” Steve beams at him, loose and open, and Sam’s not sure he’s ever seen Steve look so happy and relaxed.

“Your nose...your nose, Steve. Steve,” Bucky says, trying — and failing — to get serious. Sam leans forward in his seat, sure that whatever Bucky says next is gonna be  _ good. _

“Your nose...is so blue. ‘S the bluest ever.  _ Ever _ , Steve,” Bucky says, slurring Steve’s name a little.

Steve just laughs fondly at him, not drunk like Bucky is but clearly feeling pretty good. “My nose is blue, huh?”

“What?” Bucky hisses at him. “No, it isn’t! Don’t be weird, your nose isn’t blue. Your  _ eyes _ are. Your blue eyes are nose, Steve.”

Sam hears someone on his left choke out a strangled, “oh, my god,” and when he looks over, Tony has his hand over his mouth and looks like his head might explode with delight.

“Bucky,” Tony says when he’s recovered, “tell us embarrassing stories about Steve.”

Bucky whips his head around, clearly regretting that decision for a moment, before narrowing his eyes at Tony. “Can’t,” he says. “Steve doesn’t get embarrassed. He just gets mad and feisty.”

“Oh, that is  _ not _ true,” Steve counters.

Bucky puts his finger on Steve’s lips and shushes him. “Is so. It is so true. Mad and feisty from the moment I met you.”

“How  _ did _ you meet him?” Natasha asks, and oh, this Sam has  _ got _ to hear.

“Mmm,” Bucky hums, thinking back. “I was 8, so he was 7, an’ I was wal— walking home from school, an’ I passed this alley.”

“It wasn’t an alley, it was a vacant lot,” Steve chimes in.

“Shh! I’m tellin’ the story!” Bucky admonishes. “There was this girl, small girl, and these older boys had her toy —”

“Her doll.”

“ —her doll, and they were throwing it —”

“Holding it over their heads so she couldn’t reach it.”

“ —yeah, that. And she starts crying, so this sk— skinny little mop-haired blond boy comes over and starts yelling at them —”

“I wasn’t  _ yelling _ .”

“You were yelling. But they just laughed, so the boy —”

“Buck, they know it was me, you can just say it was me.”

“Shhhhh! I’m tellin’ the story! So Steve sticks his chin out, you know how he does that?” Bucky tilts his head back and demonstrates, with pitch-perfect accuracy, the Steve Rogers chin jut. “An’ folds his arms and everything, which makes the boys laugh. And  _ that  _ makes Steve all hopping mad, so he marches around behind the kid with the doll and kicks him right in the back of the knee.”

“Holy shit!” Clint barks out, laughing.

“Yeah!” Bucky agrees. “The kid goes down like a sack — sack of potatoes, and he drops the doll on the ground. The girl picks it up and runs away. Steve tries too, but the big kids are mad, so they grab him and start shoving him around.”

“They just threw me down and I scraped my arms up, it wasn’t that bad,” Steve says. 

“That’s bad enough, Steve! Steve!” Bucky tells him. “So I find a — a rock and throw it at the kids, then another, and Steve is bleeding on the ground, so they leave.”

“Bucky came over to help me off the ground and introduce himself,” Steve continues. “And I—”

“ — and Steve swat— swatted my hand away,” Bucky interrupts. “He said, ‘I don’t need your help, all growly.’”

“And Bucky said, ‘well, that’s good ‘cause I wasn’t trying to help. I just like throwing rocks at jerks.’”

“Which made him laugh, and we’ve been best friends ever since.”

Everyone is gleefully silent for a moment when the story ends, mouths open in perfect “aww” unison, until Thor literally squeaks and Bucky laughs at him. Then Bucky says, “oh, this is weird, though listen to this: Steve hates cucumbers but loves pickles.”

“They taste completely different, Bucky!” Steve says, exasperated.

“Pickles are MADE from cucumbers, how can you like one and not the other?” Bucky replies.

Sam smiles, leaning forward a bit. This is clearly an argument they’ve had before, and it’s the first time they’ve bickered around the group, and it is  _ hilarious. _

“The brining process with all the salt and spices and shit completely changes the flavor profile of the cucumber, Bucky! It is absolutely reasonable to like one and not the other!” Steve says, really getting worked up now.

“Pfft,” Bucky counters intelligently. “This is just like raw versus cooked carrots all over again.”

“Cooking the carrot  _ also _ completely changes its flavor profile, not to mention the texture. Raw carrots are way better than cooked ones.”

“Yeah, if you’re a rabbit.”

“Rabbits don’t even eat carrots in the wild! That’s a myth!” Steve shouts.

“Tell that to Bugs Bunny, Steve!” Bucky shouts back.

“I can’t because he  _ isn’t real!” _

Bucky gasps dramatically. “You take that  _ back, _ Steve!” 

The two of them glare at each other silently, and Sam wishes he had some popcorn or something, this is so entertaining.

“You know what?” Steve says, breaking the silence. He lurches forward suddenly, getting his feet under him as he repositions his arms and stands up, picking Bucky up off his lap and holding him in his arms as he starts walking away. Bucky yelps and squirms until he’s chest-to-chest with Steve, wrapping his legs around Steve’s waist.

Which...holy shit, as far as displays of supersoldier strength go, that’s a pretty fucking good one. 

“Steve. Steve,” Bucky says, “put me down.”

“Nope. You’ve had enough, it’s time to go home.”

“Steve,” Bucky says as he starts to giggle.

“Mnh-mnh,” Steve says, smiling as Bucky pokes him in the sides.

“Down.”

“Nope, not until we get home.”

Bucky smiles mischievously right before he goes completely limp in Steve’s grasp, legs dropping from around Steve’s waist at the same time, and Steve makes a surprised sound as Bucky falls out of his arms toward the ground. 

“Bucky!” he shouts, eyebrows furrowed in concern, but Bucky twists as he falls and lands easily, rolling away from Steve, and then he’s up in a flash, running toward the stairwell, cackling as he goes.

Steve watches him go, stunned, before he grins and takes off after him with a, “oh, you little shit!”

Bucky yelps and runs faster. He crashes into the stairwell door, pulling it off its hinges as he throws it open, Steve hot on his trail. Sam can hear their echoed laughter as they race up the stairs to their floor. It fades away once they reach their floor and burst through the door into their apartment.

Sam turns toward the rest of the group and voices the question clearly on everyone else’s mind:

“What the fuck was  _ that _ ?!?

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
